Dead Space: Journey
by Tyr's Hoof
Summary: Journey Colony has recently uncovered a Marker, thought to be an alien artifact. The Church of Unitology stepped in, keeping it covered up. Few new about it, until it was to late, and a Necropmorph outbreak began, pulling the colony into waking nightmare...As three survivors try to escape.(OC acceptance closed. Universe translations will occur in story as they arise.)
1. Journrey Colony

Dead Space: Journey

Journey Colony, Central Apartments

Apartment 112.

"Hey, get up! I've been calling you for damn near an hour now." The grainy voice of Steel Line filled the tiny apartment like a swarm of angry bees. The room was only populated by a single Pegasus, laying on his side in the sole bed that made up almost half the room. He was a dusty brown, with a neatly trimmed chocolate mane and matching eyes.

He sat up, the communicator in his suit, which was laying on a personal locker next to the foot of his bed, was on, creating a blue window with a stallions angry face on it. He rolled out of his bunk, and sat in front of the suit.

"What's going on, sir?" He stifled a yawn as he spoke, stretching a little as well.

"Free Fall, I need all officers on standby right now. Something is going down, I have no idea what it is exactly yet, but I need you at precinct an hour ago. Steel out." And with that, the little blue box faded to static and then disappeared. Free Fall exhaled sharply, already seeing just how terrible of a day it was going to be.

He couldn't really dally though, and pulled his RIG off the locker box, and began slipping it on. It went on like a full skin suit, pulling over the top of his body, slipping his hooves in, and then zipping it up underneath. It was a Police Riot RIG, he was after all a Riot Response Officer. It had a series of interlocking plates on the front of it, covering his entire body, but a thinner layer of synthetic hard fibers covered his limbs, wings, and tail. Around the neck, right before where his head began and neck ended, was a wider collar, used for housing the automatic helmet system.

He checked his spinal read out, simply turning his head rather then relying on the helmet system. A long blue bar made up of independent little blocks ran up his spine, starting at his tail and running up to the base of his neck. He checked a few of the metal pieces on his forelegs, especially the wider piece on his left leg that read POLICE in bold white letters, in contrast to the black and dark green of the suit.

Finally, he opened his locker, it housed fifteen rounds for his seeker rifle, and the seeker rifle itself. The rounds went into pouches on his side, where he could easily reach them with the opposite hoof. Next came the rifle, it was bright yellow, long piece of metal, almost boxy in appearance. He lifted it out of the metal locker and placed it against the center his right shoulder, where a particular round, thin metal pad was located. The pad let out a couple of small metal arms, connecting to ports on his rifle and attaching the rifle to his suit.

A feminine voice came out of the v shaped display on the front of his chest; "Weapon detected and attached. Going to standby." All he had to do to fire it was put his hoof out, and it would go into firing mode, extending to its full length and acting more like the sniper rifle it was, and then he just had to squeeze a pressure pad on the underside to fire a round. Pretty simple stuff.

Finally ready, he turned to the door, a bright blue circle on the front of it telling him it was unlocked. He pressed the bottom of his hoof to it, and the circle now declared it was opening. The door slid apart, vertically, to the first floor hall of the Journey Colony Central Apartments. The hall was well lit, the green halls leading in both directions. Free Fall gave out one last yawn, before going on his way.

It was only a short walk outside, to the cooling breezes of the end of summer. Unlike Equestria, Peacefall had a strange ecosystem. There were no known indigenous species of animals, only plants. The strange thing wasn't the plants, but how the seasons worked. As soon as the sun set, it would be gone for six months, and the planet would fall into a deep freeze. The colony was protected by a large shell that would help keep the cool out, and the ponies inside safe.

Outside was far different then the inside of the buildings for another particular reason. Inside, they only had so much room for storage and general usage, so everything was rather closely crammed together. Outside though, it was nice and open, most everywhere was landscaped, dirt and concrete paths lead to everything, and there were a few tram stations still available for those who had to go half way across the colony. It wasn't as big as it would seem, but it was large enough that getting from the Hospital to the precinct was a two hour walk, but only twenty minutes by tram.

Free Fall went into patrol mode as he walked out of the apartment building, his head scanning left and right as he walked, and his ears were open for any sort of disturbance. He normally would be a little more calm, but things were getting bad lately. He was following a dirt path when the object of his thoughts appeared. The Public Sector's Shopping Mall. He stopped and glanced at it, remembering what had happened only three days ago.

Thirty two had killed themselves in the malls center, slitting there own throats in front of passerby's and little foals. He kept walking, needing to get to the precinct before Steel Line had more to yell at him for...

Governor Tidy watched in horror as his finding did what it was designed to do. He had thought it was a power source, and that the recent murder and suicides were all just coincidence, just like the nightmares and sleep disorders. But it wasn't a power source. The dead body of a mare, who had slit her own throat from the safety of a locked room, was now standing back up, new appendages were snapping out of the top of its shoulders, right next to its head. It howled, the sound was hollow, like there was no life behind it. Just empty, lifeless murder...


	2. Treatment

Treatment

The tram was quiet, its white interior flush with some of the last sunlight Peacefall would see for a while, and the only ponies in it was a Bio-Hazard Clean Up team, and there impromptu leader, Amethyst, was sitting near the front, a little bit of space between herself and the others. She was looking at a Text log in a small holographic panel, going over the details of there current contract. Her RIG was different from her fellow employees, where they were all wearing there thick, yellow hazmat suits, while she was wearing her actual RIG.

It was an Elite Class Advanced Hazard Engineering RIG, a dark gray, near black undercloth with shiny silver white, ribbed armor plating on the outside of all of her legs, back, and chest. Unlike most RIGs, it was an older model, without the collapsible helmet. Instead her helmet was sitting on the seat next to her, it was a the same color as the ribbed armor, with a bright, emerald green screen on the front, with three thin metal bars horizontally on the face screen, protecting the face when worn, and spreading out towards the back and side of her head enough to protect the sides a little better as well.

She herself was a light blue hued Unicorn, with a dark blue mane that was long enough that she needed to curl it up to put it inside her helmet. Thankfully it already curled a fair bit, making it easier to get inside her helmet. Her blue eyes roved the screen of her text log, memorizing every detail. She occasionally put a hoof up to her eyes and massaged them, trying to find energy after several nights of nightmares, but at that point, who in the colony wasn't having trouble sleeping? The log claimed it to be a rather simple clean up job, a mare in the Government Sector had mixed up medication for an off world virus in there research labs, and had met a rather horrific fate. The only attached picture was taken from a security camera, it showed a fairly large room, with plenty of lab equipment and benches to work at, and a stain that almost covered an entire ten foot wide wall section.

She scrolled down the log, to the picture, and used her horn to zoom in, forming a small magical square at random spot in the middle of the stain, and pulling its corners apart. It zoomed in, showing her a point blank perspective of the stain. Just like when she had seen it an hour ago, she still felt nauseous looking at it. It wasn't blood, she could tell that, it was pinkish, almost like skin, but it was ribbed, like there were hundreds of individual bones in every one foot section of it. It looked like a fleshy desert of dunes.

It was, without a doubt the strangest thing she had ever seen. She gave up on trying to figure out what it was, closing the log as her coworkers talking began to finally reach her now unoccupied mind.

"Do you think we'll meet him?" One of them asked, looking towards the team's second-in-command, Stiff. Stiff was a yellow earth pony, with gray eyes, and usually a mirthful expression on his face, which now couldn't be seen through the mask covering his face.

"Governor Tidy Up? I doubt it. He'll probably be to busy. But, we will see him at the rally tonight." Stiff said, reclining in his seat, just as the tram finally reached the entrance tunnel for the Government Sector. Only a few more minutes, Amethyst thought to herself, as her Unitologist coworkers continue to prattle on.

"He's such an inspiration. Who else could come here and fix all of Bottom Line's mistakes? Only a stallion with the kind of unity of purpose, mind and body as Tidy Up." Amethyst turned in her seat, trying to focus on anything other then there admiration of the Governor. He had fixed a lot of things, but even he had faults. Lots of ponies were talking about him 'donating' a lot of money that he cut from the Police and Security forces, to the Public Sector, the majority of which went to the church.

Instead of dwelling on it, she opened a small, white case that was resting underneath her seat, and took her tool out of it. It was a PFM-100 Hydrazine torch, a sleek red cylinder hung underneath a short nozzle and attached igniter. She checked the fuel gauge, just trying to stay busy until they arrived. Just as she shut the case and looked up, the tram was rolling into the Sector station. Pristine white walls and florescent lighting reminded her they were now underground. As was also the common reception to non-Government employee, a ten pony strong security team was waiting just outside the sliding glass doors of the tram.

They wore something similar to what a police officer would wear on patrol, just with a dark blue color and a full face plate. One gestured for them to follow and began to lead...

* * *

The room was just as terrible as the picture had made it out to be. Amethyst was alone in the room, the majority of the lab benches had been pushed to the side, away from the mess. Just like in the picture, it covered most of the wall, a horrible fleshy colored mass. She opened the text log in her RIG, and examined the picture. It had even grown larger, moving almost two feet in every direction.

She closed the log, and approached it, feeling her right foreleg lagging behind as it was heavier with the now attached Hydrazine torch. She lifted her free hoof and was about to push it against the mass, when her RIGs communication channel sparked to life, an image of one of the guards outside on it.

"You weren't hired to touch it and play with it, let alone take samples. Burn it, or get out of there. Now." He sounded serious, and cut the link the second he was finished. She had nearly jumped out of her skin when the communication started, so she was shook up enough to just nod. Great, there went a perfectly good research example. She lifted the torch, and it went into firing mode, sliding down the outside of her leg, going in front of her hoof and then sliding into her grasp. She leveled it, and began to bathe it in fire.

She swept right to left, top to bottom, covering the entire mass in flames. Half way through, something made her stop. A glint in the center of the mass, where the flames were now licking away at the outermost walls of the mass. As the glint caught her eye, she lowered the torch, puzzled by it. As the flames tore at more of the mass, it became more visible, a black rock of some sort. With red indention on it. She moved closer, as close as she could with the flames around her, and peered at it.

They weren't indention's. They were some sort of markings. She had to fight to tear her eye away from it, and finding the strength to pull away before the guard belittled her again, she turned from it. Her peripheral vision first made her aware that she wasn't alone, something black had been standing behind her. She froze in place, it barely visible in her peripherals. She could feel every chest burstingly strong heartbeat that resonated from her core. Her breath was nearly caught in her throat. Finally, she turned, slowly looking up at it.

It was a stallion, his skin and fur cooked off, his entire form as black as night from the burns. His mane and tail were gone, of course, and small cracks in his skin showed her that he was still hot to the touch, the were red hot, like coals in a fire pit. She took a step back, her suits temperature gauges flashing as she nearly placed a hoof in the fire behind her. It opened its mouth, ash sifted out, and its vacant eyes stared into her soul in a way only a demon could.

"Take us back. We forgive you. Make. Us. Whole." It spoke. It spoke with no tongue, its voice like the sound of a simpering fire, dying as water flooded over it. It was inpony. She closed her eyes, and felt something tap her helmets side.

She gasped for air, and nearly shot straight up, her hoof instinctively coming up, her hope to burn the monstrous pony dashed as a regular, stallion stranger was standing over her, and her torch was missing from her hoof. Her breathing came out ragged, like an animal caught in a trap. She realized she was still wearing her helmet, and despite her own self preservation, she quickly brought her hooves up and removed it, nearly tossing it aside to get it off her head.

She stared at the floor, trying to catch her breath, while a hoof gently prodded her in the back, trying to help her clear her airway.

"What happened?" She finally coughed out, her soft voice sounding almost unreal to her at the time. The image of the thing still burnt in her mind.

"Don't worry, we took you out of the infected site. You had some sort of a seizure from what we could tell." The pony patting her back answered, a strange voice that was vaguely familiar. It was a powerful voice like a Unitologist preacher would have. She stood up, a little shaky, wanting to turn around and face the stranger.

It was Governor Tidy Up. He was big, a beast of a stallion, standing a whole two heads above her. He was a crème color, his mane like me;ting chocolate, short and tidy, just long enough to make him look a little more laid back. Violet eyes stared at her, a strange warmth in them. They were standing back in the tram terminal, and now that there wasn't a shield of security guards blocking her view she got a better look at it. It was just like any other tram terminal, a spacious, raised platform with benches and a small glass wall terminal that told the departure and arrival times.

"Are you alright?" He smiled again, turning his head a little.

"Yeah. I just-I've never had something like that happen to me before." She felt a little off balance, a little light headed. Her clean up team, where were they? "Governor, where is my team? Are they finishing up?"

"Of course. They were nearly done the last time I checked up on them."

"If I may ask, Governor, what was that on the wall? And what was that black thing in it? I've seen lots of virus' and bio hazards. I've never seen anything like that." He held up a hoof, almost dismissively.

"It was just a keep sake of the doctor trying to cure some disease or another. I also spoke with your teammate, Stiff, he mentioned you've been having trouble sleeping lately?" He changed the subject, almost transitioning like it had been his intention all along to come to this new topic.

"Yeah. I mentioned it to him once or twice in the lab. It's just bad dreams, probably from something I ate." She gave a nervous smile, uncomfortable with the topic, or Stiff having mentioned it. It was obvious that he and the Governor both probably saw the same reasoning behind the question. "I'm sure that whatever happened today, it had nothing to do with it."

"I'm quite sure that it is irrelevant. I think you're suffering from the same malady that's affecting majority of the Colony. Nightmares. Delusions. Hallucinations. Bad bit of business, all together. But your in luck, in any case." He keyed something on his suit, and a another stallion came in, carrying a silver medical case, with a special lock on the front. The new stallion placed it on the ground, and with his horn, began to undue the lock. It rotated, and a rod emerged from the center of the side of the case, until it popped open. With that, the stallion left, having said nothing to either of them.

Inside the case was a plastic cover, keeping its contents airtight and sealed. The content of the box was close to what she expected. Vials of a pinkish liquid, each one was tiny, barely large enough to fit into a hoof. There were at least a hundred on the top, and more below.

"What are they?" She asked, peering as close to them as she could.

"A cure. Its a calming drug, non-addictive of course, for the nightmares and hallucinations that have been so common lately. My friends in the church assure me it works 100%."

She pulled away a little, now that she knew where they were from. They were like a dead animal found by the side of a lake, disgusting in ever way. It was a Unitologist product, and she knew a lot of the allegations encircling there name. She looked back up at the Governor, who again smiled, and pushed the box even closer to her.

"I'm not asking, Ms. Amethyst. This is a direct order for your hospital, you will give it out. I know that prescribing medication is something that you don't do, but you will deliver this for me, to your hospital's ICU. If it doesn't arrive, I will not play nice. This is government property, so I can have you thrown a way, for a very, very long time." His smile was still there, but his voice was now a whisper, and he was enunciating every syllable, to make sure she got the message. "Do I make myself clear?"

She nodded, slowly, but it was there.

"Ah, here comes your team." He waved a hoof behind her, but she didn't really take notice. She closed the case and hovered it with her as she went back to the train. She had a terrible feeling about the box, but what could she do? She was in a corner. As she sat in the tram, the Governor smiled at them as it began to leave and even waved.

She was cycling insults through her mind, cursing him and hoping all the horrors of the universe would come down on his head. She sat back in her seat, just as Stiff placed her torch next to her and turned around to go sit back down.

The rest of the trip they all rode in something like silence, and returning to the hospital, she left the case with the receptionist on the first floor and went up to her lab on the second. It was a fairly open room, her desk on the far side, with enough room to seat at least twenty ponies in front of it, if her lab station was rolled to another corner. She slumped into her chair behind her imported mahogany wood desk, and tried to relax, but couldn't. She was still mad at herself for letting the Governor walk all over her...

* * *

Tidy Up smiled at his secretary. "Sir, the rally is still set to go at 6 tonight, right as the Bubble shield fully closes. But I do have a message from Preacher White."

"Oh," Tidy finally looked away from the tram terminal, "What does he need?"

"He said, 'Well done. We will all be whole soon. Alter be praised."

"Alter be praised."

* * *

Just a quick AN: Still looking for more characters, and will only introduce them in there introduction chapters, more characterization will come later.


	3. Things Fall Apart

Things Fall Apart

The Public Sector was unnaturally quiet, the usual hustle and bustle of ponies going about there everyday activities were now non-existent. All because of the unfortunate incident a few days ago. The Mass Suicide in the Mall. Heart Cure felt a little strange, leaning on the upper walkway of the second floor, peering down to the first floor, almost exactly over the spot where the suicides had happened. Even her nearly unperturbed demeanor was a little shaken at the thought.

She pulled away from the railing, forcing the memories of the suicides out of her mind as best she could. Almost absentmindedly, she brushed a little of her black mane out of her face, and fussing a little as doing so caused some of her blue highlights to mesh together. She used her horn for simplicities sake, and pulled her mane to a better spread of her long, wavy mane. She wanted to look as nice as possible, because even with all the stress of her job as a cardiologist and the nightmares just about everypony was having, she had a date.

The upper walkway ended rather quickly, a set of stairs leading back down to the ground floor. The entire mall was rather wide, designed to accommodate the nearly three thousand ponies who lived on Peacefall, but was still smaller then most malls in the known universe. Now standing close enough to the front doors to look out at the courtyard, an unfriendly sight met her. The green grass was nearly hidden by the number of ponies standing in the courtyard, they were all standing in front of a small stage, just large enough for two ponies to stand on, along with several holograph projectors, each depicting two black points, twisting around each other, and thickening towards the base, sort of like the double helix of DNA, but twisted at the same time.

Unitologists. Just her luck, she had forgotten about the entire colony receiving an invite to 'witness the truth'. She had dismissed it, not even thinking that the church could only have public meetings in the public sector. She stood, watching them, and noting in her reflection that her gray sweater was still nice and trim against her pure white coat. She nearly jumped when another pony appeared in the glass. At first inspection, she knew it wasn't her date, it was a police officer.

A colt, with a two different shades of brown, one for his coat and one for his mane, and a third for his eyes, was standing a few feet behind her. "Miss, you alright?" His voice was soft, and didn't really sound like it belonged to a police officer. She turned around, finally looking at him.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry, I kinda zoned out there for a minute." Her voice was a little more moderate then his, but still obviously feminine.

"Watching the rock lovers? Yeah, it's kinda easy to get lost in there weirdness." He moved to stand next to her, staring out the door as well.

"I've never really been a fan of them, and I'm all for trying anything once. It's just that they always come off as being so..." She drug out the 'oh', looking for the right word.

"Weird?" The officer ventured.

"I guess that's one way of putting it. I imagine we seem pretty weird to them then, huh? Especially since non-unitologist's are a minority here."

"I don't know. I just find it hard to have complete, mindless faith-" He was cut off by the holoprojector on his RIG suddenly turning on, a crisp blue window jutting out of it, and into the air. A picture of the Unitology symbol, the Marker was plastered on it. "What the?" He tried to close it, but it immediately reopened. She stifled a laugh at his predicament.

"I think you're picking up interference from the meeting. It happens to us all the time at the hospital, we pick up the wrong patients RIG when they stand to close to other patients." As she finished talking, her own RIG began to project the same video. Except now it was playing audio.

"Brothers and sisters of the Church, thank you all for your faith, your courage and your commitment. Tonight is the promised night, that we shall finally have convergence. I ask that you all take to the street at revel in the coming truth. As the clock hits six, it shall begin. One mind, one body, one purpose."

There was a pause between the two ponies as they listened, and it lasted for a few seconds later. The officer pulled up his holoprojector's clock, to see that it was already 5:50 P.M. Local time.

"That doesn't sound to good." He opened his holoprojector and filtered it to a another police officer, wearing the same suit, just with his helmet on. "Hey, did you pick up that broadcast?"

"Yeah, every RIG in the colony did. What should we do, Fall?" The other pony asked, from somewhere across the group outside.

"Fall back to the hospital, keep it secure. I'm gonna take this civilian with me to the tram and be there right after you." Just as finished speaking, the other end of the conversation shorted out. He turned to face her again.

"I guess my dates canceled tonight, huh?" She gave a nervous chuckle as she spoke, still smiling though.

"Sorry. You'll have to reschedule. Come one, I'm gonna take you to the hospital. You should be safe there." He turned back towards the malls hallways, and began to walk, not waiting for her response.

"Hey, hold up. Why do you think the hospital will be safer?" She fell in line with him, walking towards the middle of the mall.

"Because it has blast shields. That and my Riot Response Group will be there. We're the best of the best." He flashed her a cocky grin, just as the lights in the mall flickered for a second, and then stayed on. They walked in silence for a few minutes. Finally a sign declared that the tram station was straight ahead.

They both stopped at the start of the platform, as a tram rolled in. The station was unpopulated, just them and the empty benches that made two neat rows on either side of them. The tram rolled in slowly, and it was immediately obvious something was wrong. The glass windows were red, slick with life blood. The blood blocked off the entire view inside the cabin of the tram, all but the sliding doors. Standing against the doors was a colt, his body pressed up against the doors, like he couldn't wait for them to open. Whatever color his coat and mane once were, they were now red slick with gore. He wore a white patient RIG, as if he had just gotten out of the hospital.

"Stay behind me." The officer said, moving in front of Heart Cure. His helmet snapped on, coming out of the holder in the neck and holoprojector. It was the same shade of black as the rest of his RIG, with two horizontal blue stripes for perception, and a pointed forehead and chin. His seeker rifle came out, and locked into a firing position.

The tram doors opened, and the colt tumbled out, landing on his chest and chin. He smiled up at them, as he shakily picked himself up. Now that he was clear of the doors, they could see the other strange thing about him. He had an electric razor in his hoof, and he had carved out a marker symbol on his face, starting at his chin and going up to his forehead. He had even clipped his right eye making it.

"Lay back down, hooves on the ground, beside your head." The officers tone switched form causal to the bark of a senior police officer. The colt laughed, a quiet, mindless laughter. He finally stood all the way up, and took a single step towards them.

"One, two. Buckle my horseshoe." He let out a small burst of laughter, before going straight faced again.

"Stop. Stand still, lay down and-"

"Three, four. Bleed piggy." He took a lounging step, trying to cover the distance of twelve feet with only two strides. The officer brought his rifle up, and the retort shook Heart Cure to the core. She had heard guns fire before, had even practiced with a Pulse Rifle before, but in the close confines of the tram station, the sound was alien to her. Maybe it was just the adrenaline.

The colt fell back, a gaping hole now in his chest. He lay flat on his back, still moving a little as pain dulled his ability to control his limbs. He let out a wheezing cough, followed by another attempt at laughter. One of his hooves reached in the collar of his RIG and he produced a needle. Even from the few feet they stood away at, they could see the pinkish fluid in the needle as pushed it into his chest.

"Death is only the beginning!" He yelled, as his body began to contort and squirm, as his flesh began to change. The officer took a step back, and jumped as he pushed into Heart Cure. She was transfixed on the colt. His neck snapped loudly, his legs began to twist. The skin on his face began to contort, and as he rolled on to his chest, and looked up and over his shoulder at them, it began to fall off, revealing the now decaying muscle and bones. His shoulders popped loudly, and a new spray of gore and blood launched to his sides, as thick, scythe like limbs jutted into the air. Razor sharp bones ended the new limbs, and they gleamed in the florescent lights of the mall.

The Officer fired again, a new hole blowing into the things chest, it staggered back, but quickly recovered.

"Come on!" Heart Cure suddenly ran past him, running away from the thing and putting a row of benches between herself and it. The officer quickly followed behind her, looking back at the thing as it tried to jump over the benches, only to catch its back hoof on the back of a bench, and go sprawling on the floor. The officer followed Heart Cure into a different section of the tram, free from the violence and carnage of the other car. The thing was up again, and moving towards them. Thankfully the door shut with plenty of time to spare. The thing seemed to understand that it could no longer get to them, and proceeded, without haste or concern to one of the many wall based air shafts. It slammed through the metal casing, and disappeared into the maze like air ways of the entire colony.

Heart Cure slumped against a seat, her head head pounding and her entire body shivering. She knew it was just adrenaline, finally taking over now that she was no longer in trouble. The officer sat across from her. His helmet was still up, but he was noticeably shaking as well.

"Whats your...Whats your name?" She asked, trying to keep her voice steady as she spoke. "I'm Heart Cure."

"Free Fall." He said after a short pause, his voice unsteady as well. "My names Free Fall."

There was another silence as they both reflected on what they had just seen.

"I don't think the hospital is safe anymore." He said, as they passed outside, and Hell surrounded them. Through the windows, they could see more creatures, like the one from the tram station. Hundreds of them, chasing down and attacking the normal ponies of the colony. Every visible direction was just another scene of death and violence. They both looked at each other, as they could see the tram station for the hospital coming up. The station was full of dead, and more of the creatures.

"I guess our first order of business is getting you a weapon. And a better RIG. For the mean time, stay behind me. Okay?" Free Fall got out of his seat, and checked his rifle, trying to avoid eye contact with her, for some reason.

"Okay." Was all she cold reply with, as the scenes of carnage were taking a toll on her usually happy demeanor.

They both knew, it was only going to get worse...


	4. Five Degrees

Five Degrees

Amethyst looked at the clock for the fifth time in the past half hour, only to see it was still 5:45, fifteen minutes away from being closing time. She looked back to her work desk, trying to force a little work out of herself. She inwardly sighed, she loved her job, but some days just dragged on and on, seeming to refuse to end. She assumed the main reason time was passing so slowly was because she was still finding it difficult to focus on her work since she got back from the Government sector. Those vials that the governor had given her were still lingering in the back of her mind, like seeing a deadly snake in the garden, and watching it disappear into the greenery, but knowing its there, its fangs ever ready.

She tried to convince herself it was nothing. Maybe the governor was just a pushy stallion. She had never met him before, so maybe he was just always like that off camera. She glanced up at the clock again. 5:50. Not bad, she thought to herself. Getting bent out of shape over the governor was making time go by faster, even if it meant her blood pressure would probably be a little higher. Before the clock could even change, her RIG's holoprojector turned on, almost causing her to jump out of her seat. Normally it would display a message telling her she was receiving a call, but it just went straight to answering. It had no video, just a picture of the Unitology symbol, the marker. A few seconds later, the familiar voice of Governor Tidy began to speak over the image.

"Brothers and sisters of the Church, thank you all for your faith, your courage and your commitment. Tonight is the promised night, that we shall finally have convergence. I ask that you all take to the street and revel in the coming truth. As the clock hits six, it shall begin. One mind, one body, one purpose." That was unnerving to say the least.

Amethyst got out of her seat, and opened one of the drawers that flanked her seat, and took her helmet out, and attached it to her side with her magic, roughly where a Pegasus' wings would be. She hoped it would be a nice peaceful Unitologist meet, but it was better to be prepared. She looked at the bottom of the drawer, at the silver case that housed her torch. Wouldn't hurt, she told herself, pulling it out and opening the case to get to the weapon inside. She checked that the fuel canister was secured, and placed it back in the box, and left it open. She was about to sit back in her chair for the last seven minutes her day, when the hospitals intercom came on.

"Code Amber-White .All security staff to pediatrics. I repeat Code Amber-White, All security to pediatrics." It went quiet for a moment as Amethyst recalled the hospitals color coded emergency system. Amber was usually child abduction. White was assault, battery and pony-slaughter. Amethyst felt her blood run cold, as a sudden wave of sweat ran down her forehead, cold as ice. She attached her flamethrower to her hoof, and stepped out of her office. The hallways of Journey Memorial Hospital were wide enough to accommodate a few gurneys walking side by side, and each floor was designed like a rectangle, with square departments set in every corner, with halls between them and elevators on both sides of the North and South halls.

On her floor was Virus and Biohazard Cleanup, her Department, Advanced Medical Engineering, Office of Diagnostics, where most Doctors personal offices and exam rooms were, and finally Oncology. Pediatrics was on the first floor, just to the left of the north hall elevator. Amethyst moved like she had a purpose, watching as a few Doctors poked there heads out at the commotion going on downstairs. A few tried to ask her something, but she ignored them. She had a gut feeling, and they very rarely led her wrong, even if she believed more in the scientific method, she couldn't ignore the gut wrenching feeling worming around her stomach and knotting it.

She delivered a case full of Unitologist product, a strange public exodus was happening, and at the exact same moment, an Amber-White code had just been called, while all the Doctors in Pediatrics were well known Unitologist's. There had to be a connection, Amethyst thought, sliding into the wide elevator and pressing the button for the first floor. The elevator was, of course, empty. She could almost feel her heart pounding at the thought of what the pink fluid in the vials could have done. She knew that few, more fanatical sects of Unitology had led mass suicides and even homicides, sparing no pony. There was a good chance that the announcement had something to do with it.

The stainless steel doors went clung and opened, and immediately a black barrel jammed into the elevator, and her face. A helmeted pony in a white RIG stood on the other side of the barrel, the large foreleg plate now inches from her face read SECURITY, and she recognized it for a hospital Security officer. He lowered his weapon as he recognized her.

"Jeez, Dr. Amethyst. Shouldn't you be upstairs?" He asked, though she couldn't recognize his voice, and she had more pressing matters to deal with. She peered over his shoulder, and could see the glass doors leading to Pediatrics. It was propped open, with two more security officers standing on either side, there weapons pointing inward, there heads turned towards the elevator, watching her. Further down the hall, a small number of nurses had gathered around the corner, watching from a safe distance.

The loud retort of an SMG firing in full auto suddenly burst the silence. The two security officer at the door turned forwards again, only to be overwhelmed by an unexpected foe. Foals. Little foals, maybe seven or eight years old. They weren't wearing patient RIG's or anything else. There coats had mostly shed, revealing mottled gray, decaying flesh. There mouths were open, the flesh around it was gone, revealing predatory sharp teeth, designed for ripping into flesh and tearing out muscle. At the end of there front legs were claws just above the fetlock, on the front of the leg. They were sharp, sharp enough to cut through the chest armor of the security officers.

The first two jumped on the officer furthest from her, his SMG went off, but it was too late. The first flung itself around his chest, landing on his back as its teeth sought his neck. The other grabbed onto his off hoof, dragging him down to the ground as he lost his balance. It joined the other creature in tearing at his face with its new teeth. His helmet tore as it did so, as his screams for help began to ring in the hallway.

The other officer turned to assist his teammate when another three came at this side, one jumped onto his side, its foreleg claws slashing into his armor and pushing him onto his side. Its head exploded as the officer at the elevator turned and fired at it, his SMG spitting a lethal stream of rounds into it. He turned to fire on the second one, still climbing over the dead body of his comrade. Before he could pull the trigger, an air cycling shaft on the other wall, opposite Pediatrics blew open, and a larger form lunged out, slamming into the security officer. It was an adult pony with the same mottled and decayed look as the foals, but it had large scythe like limbs sprouting from its shoulders. It's shoulder blades tore into the officer like a hot knife through butter. He screamed in agony as his body was perforated. Amethyst watched in horror as this all happened in the space of ten, maybe twenty seconds.

Her body refused to move, the carnage, the blood, the gore, the meat. Why was her brain operating so slowly, just now taking just how much blood was now filling up the hallway. It was a blood bath, puddles of blood so big, they were starting to fall into the empty shaft between the elevator and the actual floor. The thing that had just killed the officer, the adult one, it's head turned towards her, releasing the officers throat from its mouth and turning its entire body towards her. It moved like it had no idea what it was, like the body was alien to itself. Instinct kicked in. One memory of an outbreak of the Onslaught Virus reminded her of what to do.

She brought her right hoof up and pressed the pressure stud. Orange fire shot out of the barrel like water from a hose. She watched the thing recoil as it burnt, trying to avoid what caused it pain. It staggered for a second, and then attempted to renew its attack. It tried to step through the fire, only to have one of its blade appendages fall off, the heat burning the flesh and tendons away until nothing held it up. It fell back again. She took the small reprieve to slam the button for the Tram Station on the elevator button panel.

She shot another gout of flame, towards the things legs, and watched it stumble back once more. She just then noticed tow more things. Through the fire she could make out the shapes of the child monsters running through the halls. The other thing was the smell. It was like burnt flesh, mixed with baby food. The door slid shut just as he flamethrower clicked empty. The small reticule above the weapon, provided by her RIG's holoprojector read zero. She backed away from the door as the thing slammed into it, roaring as it did so. It was an alien sound, nothing that could ever come out of a ponies throat. She couldn't describe it if her life depended on it. It was to...unnatural.

The elevator churned downwards once more. She could feel bile in her throat, and had to resist the gagging and retching that took over her throat. She knew she had to remain in control of herself, it was not the time to have a break down just because she had to do something that was so...vile. She fought back the urge to vomit, and pressed against the side wall for support. Maybe it was only in the hospital. A moment of clarity came over her, as a she now had hope. Maybe she could escape it. Surely the actual police forces could handle it. They had to. Nopony else could.

The doors was again went clung. She used her magic to grab her helmet and quickly slid it on, and aimed her now empty flamethrower towards the doors. She knew there was a store near the elevator, and her license allowed her to take a few fuel tanks before she would be cut off. She could only hope that it she could get to it, unharmed. As the doors slid open, she was met with nothing but darkness, only the small amount of light from the elevator illuminated the first three or four feet out of the elevator.

On the ground directly before the elevator was a corpse, wearing a black RIG, with a similar SECURITY plate on its foreleg. The colors meant it was an actual police officer however. She took a shaky step out of the elevator, and stopped as a high pitched clicking interrupted her. Two golden orbs broke the darkness, and looked at her. Her heart stopped in her chest, and her breathing stopped. It looked at her for a second, and with a high pitched cry, dragged the police officers corpse away into the darkness. She was still holding her flamethrower up, and flicked on the attached flashlight. The hall was short, branching off to the the tram below with two halls, one on her left and right. She began to scan the hallway, to find five more police officers corpses in the hall. They were all dismembered, there guts strewn all over the hall. Limbs, blood and organs created a sea before her.

She swallowed, trying to fight off the disgust rising in her chest again. A sudden chiming on the intercom broke her attention at fighting her bodily urges. A mare's voice broke the cold, dead air.

"Tram incoming, ETA three minutes. Passengers suffering multiple flat lines, all staff prepare to assist. Two unharmed passengers on board. Colony Security has been notified and will arrive shortly."

Two living passengers. Amethyst had to get to them. She finished her scan of the hall and found her prize. The store lit up a small section of the hall, its green light a welcoming sign. She would get more fuel, and then she would meet the other two survivors on the tram platform...


	5. Insecure

AN: Sorry, lots of talking in this one. This is the last, "Oh hey there, I noticed your a survivor too, heres what happened to me" chapter.

Insecure

Amethyst stood in front of the small panel that had come out of the store, the half circle built into the wall allowed with an extending arm and a touch screen. It also automatically connected to her RIG's systems and read her ammo output. The screen changed from its usual Buy/Sell/Store features to a small text box reading: "Would you like towithdraw from the Hospital Contamination Removal stock?" Along with a a simple yes/no option set on the bottom.

She used her off hoof so as to not activate her flamethrower, and the store made a loud thunk, thunk, thunk sound as the fuel tanks came in on a small rail that extended underneath the screen. She took them and stepped away from the store, which folded it's screen back in, and set her two extra tanks on her side, feeling them magnetically lock onto her side, where she could easily reach them. Next, she reached out with her weapon hoof, the flamethrower sliding into its firing position, and she used her horn to press the small safety switch near the top, right by where the tank connected to the actual weapon.

She ignored the loud tinking of the old tank as it rolled away. She walked back towards the elevator, stopping at where the hall split into the dual access stairways for the tram station. They both led to the same place, just a few feet on the opposite side of the station. She chose her right, and found herself following a trail of blood down the concrete stairs, obviously made by the police officers she had just found, running away from whatever had been down here. She had never really been afraid of the dark, but now the steady whine of the trams brakes, just barely audible in the stairway, caused her to nearly jump out of her skin.

At the base of the winding stairs was an actual door, with a holographic control panel in the center of it. She waved a hoof at it, and after a second of waiting, it slid open. She was about to lean forward and peek out before going in, when the sound of some sort of high powered rifle went off. The sound was louder in the confines of the tram station, causing it to ring in her ears for a few extra seconds, even with her helmet's sound dampeners. Whoever the survivors were, they were in trouble. She couldn't abandon caution though, knowing her RIG couldn't stand up to those creatures claws, she stepped out onto the tram platform, still hidden away in a corner of the tram. The tram itself was a simple platform, flat with benches running around the walls. Its normally sky blue walls were painted with red and bullet holes. A final stand for the Riot officers that littered the station.

As Amethyst moved out of the corner of the station, she saw the survivors, a Riot officer and another mare. The Riot officer had three of the things surrounding him, his yellow rifle no longer in the grasp of his suits automatic holder, but in his hooves, being used as a club. The creatures were like the adult one she had fought in the hallway above, and as she moved to engage them from behind, she noted that one was already dead on the ground, two of its regular legs shot off. Now closer she could make out what the mare was doing, her front legs wrapped around the gun leg of a dead officer, trying to pry its weapon off. Some sort of security measure kept the weapon trapped in his hoof.

The officer noticed her first, just as he smashed the head off of one of the creatures, his helmet looking directly at her. The momentary pause in his defense left him open, and one on his right rushed him, its bladed shoulder legs sliding underneath the barrel of his chest, and throwing him onto his back. Luckily, the platform was small enough for Amethyst to cross in only a few strides, and she was already close enough to light them up. The three creatures were to focused to notice her, and as they tried to descend on the officer, he reattached his rifle just as she got her flamethrower up and aimed at the one on her right. She let out a short burst of fire, the creature stumbling forward, flailing as it burnt. She turned to the center one, only to have one of its front legs blown off by the officer, causing it to go limp, its flesh making a sickening thud as it fell.

She aimed at the last one, hitting it with a short burst of fire, preparing to turn back towards the first one as the officer turned on his side and blew off one of its legs. It wasn't dead, just too crippled to attack either of them as easily. She gave it another short burst of fire, and it went limp, collapsing in on its own weight. She turned back to the last one, and gave it its final burst of flame, as one of its bladed legs and head fell off, the rest of its body followed. There was a silence now, as they both realized just how winded they both were. She had never caught her breath after her short sprint across the station, and she could his labored breathing over the silence.

He gave her a curious nod, before rolling onto his chest and looking at his companion.

"Heart Cure, you alright?" He asked, standing up. The other mare was sweaty and coverd in the soot produced by Amethysts flamethrower.

"Yeah. Just need a change of clothes. Maybe some water." She was a little shook up, standing over the dead officer still, having finally relinquished her hold on the corpses arm. The officer turned back towards Amethyst, his RIG's helmet automatically removing itself, revealing his face.

"Wait! Are you sure that's a good idea?" She tried to stop him, worried about the possibility of infection from the creatures. He merely raised an eyebrow.

"Kinda late now, isn't it?" He forced a smile. "Oh, uh, Riot Officer Free Fall." He pointed at himself, and extended a foreleg for a friendly shake. Amethyst wasn't anti-social, but her understanding of infection's caused her to hesitate. Against her better judgment, she used her telekinesis to remove her helmet, and accepted his hoof shake.

"Amethyst. Virus and Biohazard Clean Up Specialist. Aren't you..." She stepped around the officer, looking at the mare he had called Heart Cure. "Aren't you Dr. Heart Cure from cardiology?"

"Yeah, I think I've met you before, Amethyst...We talked at the Hospital Picnic, didn't we?" Heart Cure replied, squinting as she remembered.

"The same." She said, matter of factly.

"Thanks for the save." Free Fall suddenly interjected, "but we should probably get out of here. I'm low on ammo, and I'd rather not get caught in a spot like this if more of those things show up."

"Oh, there's a store upstairs. And I..." Amethyst gave one of the dead monsters a long, hard stare, as if expecting something.

"You what?" Heart Cure moved to stand next to her, and look at the same corpse.

"I want to get a sample of one and analyze it. Find out what kind of infection this is."

"Okay. Go for it." Free Fall turned to face the corpse now as well. His voice shook enough to show that he wanted nothing to do with the body.

"I don't have any of the stuff I need to get a sample."

"Oh hey, Free Fall. Maybe there's one of those vials around, like what that colt used at the last tram station." Heart Cure said as she began to search for it, walking around the bodies and benches, looking for one of the vials.

"A vial? You mean like a needle?" Amethyst began to follow Heart Cure, more out of realizing she had no weapon then need.

"Yeah. We ran into a colt in the Public Sector. I had to shoot him and he stuck himself with a needle, full of pink goop. Yelled something about 'death being the beginning'. Usual crazy Unitologist stuff." Free Fall finished for Heart Cure as he began his search on the other side of the station.

"And after he stuck himself with the needle?"

"He turned into one of those things." Heart Cure motioned towards a burnt corpse. "It only took a few seconds before he was..."

"Don't dwell on it. Obviously, not everpony in the colony got one of those needles. We just have to wait for communications to come back online and then I'm sure my fellow officers will have everything under control." Free Fall spoke slowly, his voice full of wavering confidence.

"You honestly believe that? How do you know a few of your officers didn't get some of those vials?" Heart Cure interjected, now sitting on a bench, having given up looking for a needle.

"Even if they did, it couldn't be enough to get all of them."

"500." Amethyst suddenly said, rather quietly. While Heart Cure and Free Fall had been searching and arguing, Amethyst had moved back towards the stairwell door.

"What was that?" Free Fall said, the only one close enough to hear her.

"I delivered them. There were 500 of those vials."

A long silence filled the station as the other two survivors brains digested her words. Finally, Heart Cure spoke first.

"You didn't know, did you?"

"No. The Governor. He threatened me. I didn't know this would happen." Amethyst wasn't one to mope, but a feeling of guilt was creeping over her like a mother's blanket over a child. Overpowering and final.

"It's not your fault." Heart Cure had moved closer now, placing a hoof on Amethysts shoulder, reassuring her.

"I couldn't have known."

"No, you couldn't have. Its the Governor's fault." Free Fall had moved to the corpse of one of his fellow officers. He touched the gun hoof and it slid out of the officers grip. Free Fall placed it on his own hoof. "If I'm the last officer on this entire planet, I will take him down for this."

"He said it came from the church." Amethyst added in, only adding conviction to the officers zeal.

"Cool. I might get to take down that stupid, rock loving religion too." He took another SMG from another dead officer and hoofed it to Heart Cure. "Lets go get your stuff. If you can tell us what these things are, it'll just be more nails for the coffin."

Amethyst smiled, her guilt slowly dissipating. Heart Cure added one last sentiment: "And, the Government sector has an evacuation ship. Perfect for getting off planet."

At least they had something similar to a plan now...


End file.
